Good morning, and thank you, Madam Chair and health committee members. We thank you for allowing us to appear in support of Bill C-313 to classify non-corrective cosmetic contact lenses as class II medical devices. We would also like to express our appreciation to Patricia Davidson, MP for Sarnia—Lambton, for bringing this important issue to the attention of the House of Commons and all Canadians. Thank you.
The Canadian Association of Optometrists represents almost 5,000 doctors of optometry in Canada. Doctors of optometry represent independent primary health care providers who specialize in the examination, diagnosis, treatment, management, and prevention of diseases and disorders of the visual system.
The issue of classifying non-corrective cosmetic contact lenses as medical devices has already been a very long road. It is our sincere desire to see this part of our journey for regulation of these devices come to an end with all-party support. A reason for pursuing this legislative change is simple: contact lenses are medical devices for good reason. There is a risk of harm associated with placing a device in direct contact with one of the most delicate and sensitive organs of the human body, the eye. In this context, there is literally no difference and even a greater risk between contact lenses that correct vision and those that provide purely aesthetic changes such as non-corrective contact lenses.
This was acknowledged in September 2003 by Health Canada's own study entitled “Human Health Risk Assessment of Cosmetic Contact Lenses”. This report concludes by stating:
...Health Canada may wish to consider placing restrictions on the manner in which these products are sold to the consumer, such as requiring prescriptions for their use and/or restricting their sale to regulated eye-care professions.
This is the journey that vision health professionals are on. Since the Health Canada report was issued, the availability and awareness of these products have increased considerably. While we do not have sales figures to support this claim, one only has to look at activity in the marketplace to get a sense of the growth of this market. Some of these clues include the number of Internet sites offering cosmetic contact lenses; the number of media articles regarding cosmetic contact lenses and the complications associated with them; the activity in Europe, Asia, and North America by opticians, ophthalmologists, and optometrists pursuing better controls; and increasing activity by the same professional groups in issuing annual warnings about decorative contact lens use and educating consumers and parliamentarians.
Bill C-313 is a common-sense initiative that aligns all contact lenses in the same federal regulatory environment. Bill C-313 makes sense from a vision health perspective, a consumer protection perspective, and is justified based on the concerns and actions already taken and being pursued by governments around the world.
Achieving royal assent for Bill C-313 is only part of the journey. Bill C-313 is the impetus for vision health professionals to encourage adjustments to provincial regulations to also place non-corrective cosmetic contact lenses in the same regulatory environment as corrective contact lenses. It is at the provincial level where prescribing and dispensing regulations rest, and this is the level of regulation that makes sense for non-corrective cosmetic contact lenses.
I will take this opportunity to provide the committee members with a broader perspective with regard to vision health. Canada is at the thin edge of the wedge with regard to a vision loss crisis that will see the incidence of vision loss more than double within the next 20 years. The four major causes of vision loss in Canada are all age-related, and as we know, we have an aging population. I'm sure my colleagues will agree that increased emphasis and priority needs to be placed on vision health. This issue of non-corrective contact lens regulations is a step in the right direction toward a larger objective of developing a national vision strategy that will deal with standards of vision care and issues common to the people of Canada from coast to coast to coast.
Vision health needs a higher priority for many reasons, including the fact that vision loss is the most feared disability for Canadians. In 2007, vision loss had the highest direct cost to health care of any disease. The incidence of vision loss will more than double in the next 20 years, and 75% of vision loss is preventable.
We ask committee members to support our efforts by endorsing Bill C-313 and help us take this step towards the higher priority that vision health must take for all Canadians.
I would like once again to thank the committee for allowing us to be here today, for the support of Bill C-313, and for their awareness of vision health as an increasingly significant consumer health issue.
Thank you.